Dec. 16, 2022

The legacy of Dennis Napolitano’s pizzeria will continue through his brother and expand into an Italian restaurant featuring recipes that go back three generations to Italy.

Donald Napolitano took over Pizza di Paolo this week after his sister-in-law, Linda, decided to sell the business a year after her husband’s death. He has renamed it Bella Cucina Italian Ristorante, his “beautiful kitchen.”

Napolitano has been involved in the restaurant on and off over the years. He came from California to help his brother set up the pizzeria at 2300 S. Minnesota Ave. in 2019 and returned last year to help again.

Dennis and Donald Napolitano work to build out the pizzeria space in August 2019.

“He called me and said that they wanted to do some expansion and make some changes and wanted me to come out and help. I go: ‘Dennis, I got a job. I own a home.’ He said: ‘Sell your home, quit your job, and move out here.’ I said, ‘Well, I do like Sioux Falls,’ because I’ve been visiting on and off through the years — because he’d been here since ’91 or ’92. I like the small-town feel.”

Napolitano moved here in June 2021, helped with the restaurant, and then after Dennis died in November 2021 he helped again as Linda took over running it.

Dennis Napolitano visits with customers during a test run for Pizza di Paolo just before it opened in October 2019.

When his sister-in-law decided to sell the business a month ago, Napolitano made an offer.

Now, at the age of 79, he’s in a new career as a small-business owner. It’s a chance to keep doing something he loves. He started cooking when he was 11, growing up in California and working on a merit badge as a Boy Scout. As a teen-ager, he started washing dishes in a small restaurant, and the owner let him cook occasionally. One of his creations even ended up on the menu.

When it came time for college, Napolitano said he followed his dad’s wishes and studied to become an architect. He ended up switching to business school and eventually got a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees, along with passing the architectural exam and getting his license even though he hadn’t finished the program.

He became the CEO of an engineering firm and worked there for 30 years, leading it to become a business with annual revenue of $100 million and 150 employees by the time he left.

Over the years, he also attended three culinary schools, worked in restaurants and mostly cooked for friends and family and at church dinners.

In 2020, he published “Bella Cucina Cookbook: Old Italian Family Recipes,” which he had been working on for five years.

“I’ve got family recipes in there,” he said. “It’s a how-to book also: how to use a knife, how to pair wine with different foods.”

Some of those recipes will find their way onto the restaurant’s menu once he installs more kitchen equipment. For dinner, he’s planning to serve pasta primavera, rigatoni in a red sauce and his favorite pasta dish, spaghetti and meatballs.

“The meatballs, they’re done to enhance the spaghetti and red sauce. They’re made with ground beef and ground pork and seasoning. They’re cooked, and they’re no bigger than a golf ball.”

Friday nights, the special will be Atlantic cod seared on the grill and baked in the oven. It will be served with blackened cauliflower and a side of the primavera or rigatoni.

He’s hoping to have the kitchen ready and expand the menu by mid-January.

Other additions will be flatbreads on a cauliflower crust and soups.

“I have two favorites,” he said of the soups. “One is red tomato with pasta and seasoning. The other one is mixed vegetables.”

Pizzas on the restaurant’s signature sourdough crust, originally created by Dennis and Linda’s son, Breadico owner David Napolitano, will continue to be offered by the slice or the whole pie.

There are a dozen varieties on the menu now, and Napolitano is tracking sales with the intent of cutting the bottom four.

He’ll keep the calzones, salads and breadsticks and the spumoni and cannoli for dessert.

Napolitano said he’d like to add tiramisu, but that likely won’t happen.

“The last class I had, a task was making this fancy dessert. There was 20 in the class; everybody’s making dessert. The instructor went around to every location. She ended up at mine, and she picked them up, and she said, ‘This is the best — of the worst.’”

Bella Cucina is open Tuesday through Saturday for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and for dinner from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. or until the customers are gone.